Florida Dept. of Children and Families Launches Five-Year Study with Orlando Company to Learn How Refugees Learn to Cope

ORLANDO, Fla. --- Covian Consulting in Orlando has been awarded a five-year grant to study how refugees are adapting and integrating into their new communities in Florida. Maritza Concha, Ph.D., a principal at Covian Consulting, said the grant is sponsored by the Florida Department of Children and Families’ Refugee Services Program and funded through grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement. “Our mission is to administer annual surveys of refugees and entrants to gauge the level of their economic self-sufficiency as well as how they are adapting and integrating into their new community,” Dr. Concha explained. Dr. Concha said Covian expects to conduct 2,150 surveys over the five-year time frame to measure economic self-sufficiency and adaptation to the U.S. culture. “We will be asking questions related to employment, English proficiency, housing, education, cash assistance and acculturation,” Dr. Concha said. Surveys will target refugee families living in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties who come from Cuba and Haiti, and parts of Latin America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Covian Consulting is a client company of the University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program located at the Central Florida Research Park in East Orange County.